Writing Resources: 17 February 2013

Here you will find a selection of the best of the blogsphere from the past week. Grab your coffee, straighten the glasses or spritz those contacts and above all – enjoy.

WANACON

Kristen Lamb: A Party in Your PJs–PAJAMACON The Ultimate Writer Fantasy. Excerpt: “Last week, I detailed all the wonders of this revolutionary new conference. It’s from home. No travel. No heap of extra expenses like air fare, baggage fees, taxi rides, hotel, food, and parking. No body cavity search from the TSA. It’s affordable. It’s GLOBAL. We have two New York Times best-selling authors, a USA Today best-selling author, award-winning and nationally best-selling authors, one of the TOP PR firms in the US, and a brilliant Intellectual Property Attorney to talk contracts. And we have hip, cool agents who understand and embrace the new publishing paradigm just waiting to hear about your novel.”

Inform & Inspire

Chuck Wendig: The Hardest Writerly Truth Of Them All. Highly recommended, quick read worth every second.

Amy Kennedy: Follow the Yellow Brick Road. Learn how Wizard of Oz principles parallels the writers life.

Jeff Goins: The Secret of Success: Stop Trying to Be Famous. Is desire for fame standing in the way of your success?

Johnny Truant: 20 truths about life that nobody wants to believe. We often cripple our chances of success with unconsidered thinking – here are a few of the most common and ways to overcome them.

Declutter

Elizabeth Craig: Decluttering for Writers (and Other Writerly Chores). Part of finding more time is in maintaining a smooth working system – here some great tips.

Writing

Jami Gold: Recipe for a Successful Synopsis. A clear, clean, effective system for assembling your synopsis.

Joanna Penn: How to Write More and Create a Daily Writing Habit. Excellent tips and advice!

Ava Jae: A Quick, Easy Way to Write More. Excerpt: “Here’s the thing about writing: when we writers aren’t writing, most times we’re thinking about writing, or wanting to write, or the WIP we’re currently working on that we want to be writing this instant but aren’t. When we actually sit down to write, however, this weird thing tends to happen.”

Roz Morris: Free indirect, deep point of view – two ways to get closer to your main character. Two effective methods for allowing your readers to walk in the characters shoes.

Janice Hardy: Theme Me Up: How to Develop Your Theme. Great tips and advice for developing your stories theme.

Chuck Wendig: 25 Things You Should Know About Narrative Point-Of-View. Excellent tips!

Kristen Lamb: Enemies of the Art: What is holding you back from writing success?

The Land of Good Enough // Failure to Focus

Cate Russell-Cole: Three Warning Signs When Bringing Your Own Emotions into Fiction Writing. Excerpt: “Have you ever been working on a first draft and written down something where you had to stop and say, “Whoa! Where did that come from?” I’m not talking about being so overly impressed with your own ability to write prose, I’m talking about moments where characters give voice to an emotion you didn’t realize you had. You’re going through a tough time financially or emotionally (or financially AND emotionally), and out of nowhere you’re confronted with a scene where a character screams out, “I just want to be able to stop worrying about how I’m going to pay for the kids’ lunches next week!”

Editing

David Kudler: 7 Deadly Myths and 3 Inspired Truths About Book Editing. Excellent tips and advice in this post.

Hugh Howey

Hugh Howey: How NaNoWriMo Trained Me to Be a Professional Author. Excerpt: “Nobody has ever been so well-prepared for National Novel Writing Month success as I was in 2011. It was my third NaNoWriMo in a row. The previous two years had been wonderful successes. This time was going to be even better; I was going in with confidence and a game plan. For the first time ever, I’d actually outlined what I was going to write. I was champing at the bit to get started!”

Social Media

Molly Greene: 5 Tips To Optimize Your Facebook Page. Excerpt: “My FB education began with Susan Salluce’s guest post, Does Facebook Work For Authors? and now I’ve made a few small changes to my postings and my page. In this article, I’ll share the basics of what I’ve learned so far. Future posts will cover more in-depth FB stuff as I figure it out.”

Kait Nolan: Subscribe By Email: NOT Just A 90s Throwback. Half of discoverability is in finding ways to connect with those interested in your work. Are you skipping effective methods because they seem antiquated?

Lindsay Buroker: 5 Facebook Marketing Tips for Authors. Great tips and advice!

Jenny Hansen: LinkedIn—Making The Most of Your Six Seconds. Excellent tips and advice for getting the most out of your LinkedIn profile.

Jami Gold: Where’s the Line between Spamming and Sharing? Excerpt: “Anyone reading this post probably doesn’t intend to be a spammer, but it’s possible to cross the line and not realize it. If we’re lucky, a friend will let us know. However, how we react to that observation is yet another minefield in the impression we leave behind in social media. A strange thing happens sometimes when spammy behavior is pointed out.”

Indie Publishing

Joanna Penn: How To Publish A Book 101. Highly recommended read! This is an awesome guide that covers a wide variety of options for self-publishing; from what to do before hand to the final result.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch: The Business Rusch: The Gift That Keeps On Giving. Excerpt: “I have been down the rabbit hole, and it is labeled “Philip K. Dick.” I had a simple question: Who benefits directly from the Philip K. Dick estate? I found websites, wikipages, arguments, lawsuits over movies, and all kinds of other things, none of which directly answered my question. Until I located an interview conducted by the Library of America with Jonathan Lethem and Laura Leslie. The LoA interview coincided with LoA’s 2008 publication of Philip K. Dick: Five Novels from the 1960s and 1970s. “

Lindsay Buroker: Should Independent Authors Have Their Books Translated into Foreign Languages? Interesting post for indie authors to consider.

J.A. Konrath: Ebook Parts. Excerpt: “Today I want to talk about the parts of an ebook. Specifically, what should be included, and the order these things should go in. When someone downloads one of my ebooks, this is what they see in the order they see it…”

Dean Wesley Smith: Think Like a Publisher 2013: Chapter 5: Return on Investment. Excerpt: “As a professional writer, when I am asked by another writer what they would be better off writing, my standard and correct answer is “Anything you are passionate about. Any story that motivates you. Any topic that scares hell out of you or excites you.” And when asked “What’s the best length in this new world?” my answer has been “Whatever length the story demands.”

Ebook Design

Joel Friedlander: Book Design Quick Tips for Self-Publishers. Excerpt: “Recently I was asked to contribute an introduction to print book design for a publication that will be out soon. I decided to address the piece to an author who was thinking about self-publishing, but wondering whether it’s worth doing a print book. Here’s my response.”

Joanna Penn: Why And How To Use MultiMedia To Enhance Your Ebooks. Are we using all the options available with the new ebook paradigm? Great advice.

D.D. Scott: Using Ebook Covers to Brand an Author Across Genres. Getting the most mileage out of your covers?

Publishing

Roger Tagholm: The Aftermath of the Agency Model. Well written article on the intentions and impact of the agency model on the publishing industry.

Dennis Abrams: Amazon Moves Closer to Selling Used Ebooks. Given the unending debate over ebook prices, what impact would the sales of used ebooks, discounted from the already inexpensive, have on the industry?

Marketing

Rae Hoffman: Tracking Your Affiliate Partners and Website Earnings. In order to know where to concentrate your marketing efforts you have to know what is working and what isn’t – great tips and ideas in this post.

D.D. Scott: Using a Variety of Ebook Price Points to Build an Indie Epublishing Empire. Excellent ideas!

Technology

Nick Ruffilo: Tips for Technologists #9: SQL – Unleash the Power of Your Data. Excerpt: “SQL stands for Structured Query Language, and is grammar used to fetch data from databases.  Beyond insanely large-data database (such as Google) and very old databases, nearly every database system supports SQL (although there are different variants and levels of support, but, key concepts hold true).  The first part of this tutorial will be an introduction to SQL and the later parts will be much more advanced topics, tips, and tricks.”